Tobias Wolff Influences

So many times personal accounts are explained, in detail, about an individual that was not treated well as a child, or had some kind of dysfunction in his/her family that gave credence to the reason why that person is not successful. That belief could not be further from the truth when it comes to critically acclaimed author, Tobias Wolff. Amid his trials and tribulations as a child and throughout life, Mr. Wolff authored numerous award winning writings, received a college education, became an influence in certain literary circles, and developed a very literal and deliberate aspect on how to capture the minds of prospective students and readers. The second son born to Mr. Arthur and Rosemary Wolff, Tobias Wolff, came into this world on

Wolff realized his passion at such a young age, he was able to learn and structure his literary works in such a way that would allow him to garner awards with a few of his works. In 1982, he received a St. Lawrence award for fiction for his authorship for In the Garden of the North American Martyrs. His work on The Barracks Thief, received a PEN/Faulkner award for fiction in 1985. One of Wolff’s first adaptations received plenty of recognition in the year 1989. This Boy’s Life received the biography award from the Los Angeles Times, the Rea Award for short story, and an Ambassador Book Award from the English-speaking Union in the year 1989. This memoir “was made into a popular film starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio” (Literature) is mentioned in the cited text book. The aforementioned awards were just a few that Mr. Wolff received for some of his literary works throughout his

Mr. Tobias figured out early on in his writing career that the best way to engage or speak directly to a reader is to write his works on things he has experienced. In conjunction, in most of his stories, he develops characters that in some way emulate him as he tells the story. James C Dolan, a Best Sellers reviewer, advises readers to "relax and enter into the sometimes comic, always compassionate world of ordinary people who suffer twentieth-century martyrdoms of growing up, growing old, loving and lacking love, living with parents and lovers and wives and their own weaknesses" (Ansell2) in regards to some of Wolff’s works and characters. This indicates that Mr. Wolff’s stories are being interpreted the way he envisioned due to his use of characters throughout some of his writings and publications. Any investigator can learn a great deal from the life and times of Tobias Wolff. He did not let his tumultuous childhood deter from him having a successful career, author award winning stories and memoirs, having an impact on others lives, and putting his personal effect on the way he develops characters throughout his stories. When the world gave Mr. Wolff lemons, he rearranged the circumstances and eventually made lemonade with what he is attributed to as a child, theoretically speaking of